Men and women with sparse and thin hair have difficulty styling their hair because they have little hair to style. For purposes of description herein, sparse, thin hair will hereafter be referred to as “thin hair” and adults having such hair will be referred to as “thin haired adults”.
Thin hair characteristically lies flat against the skull, hangs limply against the face, or floats distractingly around the head. Thin haired adults are vexed in grooming their hair and have two major problems: they have difficulty creating the appearance of hair volume (hereafter called the “Volume Problem”) and they have difficulty holding their hair in place (hereafter called the “Holding Problem”).
The Volume Problem and the Holding Problem have historically been insoluble problems for thin haired adults. Prior hair fastening devices have not solved these problems. Prior art devices accommodate three classes of persons, namely: babies, little girls and women fortunate enough to have hair sufficient to support a hair device.
Prior art hair fastening devices, such as bobby pins, barrettes, and hair combs, slide out of thin hair and for the brief period of time these devices stay in the hair, they tend to flatten the hair and expose the scalp. Other hair fastening devices, such as hair bands, pony tail holders, and hair clip devices, have other deficits in thin hair.
When worn by a thin haired adult, hair bands, pony tail holders, and hair clips are uncomfortable and unattractive. Pony tail holders pull and tear thin hair. Hair clips are sharp and uncomfortable against the scalp. On a thin haired adult, all of preceding devices advertise the wearer's scarcity of hair.
Although some prior art hair devices propose to hold thin hair in place, they succeed only in the hair of babies, little girls and women who desire to display ornaments in their hair. These prior art devices have lightweight structures, unattractive fastening mechanisms, and decorative components that both hide the fasteners and decorate the head. When worn by a thin haired adult, the devices are highly visible in the hair, displaying ribbons, bows, plastic flowers or beads in the hair, thus rendered a juvenile presentation.
Examples of these prior art devices for thin hair include—
U.S. Pat. No. 4,896,685 issued Jan. 30, 1990,
U.S. Pat. No. 6,131,585 issued Oct. 17, 2000, and
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0172948 A1 published Sep. 18, 2003.
In many societies, highly visible hair devices have a juvenile and feminine connotation that prohibits male use. Additionally, many women believe highly visible hair devices project appearances that are “little girlish” or unsophisticated. For these and other reasons discussed below, recent hair fasteners proposed for thin hair have been useless to thin haired adults.
The devices of U.S. Pat. No. 4,896,685 and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0172948 A1 are made of flexible lightweight materials; and use hook and loop fabric sandwiches with the hair squeezed in the middle to hold the hair in place. Using hook and loop fabric sandwiches to hold hair in place causes both discomfort and hair loss when the devices are removed. Anyone who has ever had sweater fibers become entangled in a hook and loop sandwich neck tab on a winter jacket, may tell you what happens to the fibers so entangled. When the hook and loop neck tab is torn apart in jacket removal, the sweater fibers also tear. They remain in the hook and loop sandwich. The same happens to hair held in a hook and loop hair fastener.
The hair device of U.S. Pat. No. 6,131,585 does not hold hair in place but rather holds ornaments in the hair by means of little anchors. The anchors are made of little plastic discs having hook faced fabric glued to their surfaces. The anchors are unattractive and, therefore, must be buried under the hair. The anchors have ornaments attached either by glue or by string to their top or side surfaces. The anchors secure ornaments in the hair but do not hold hair in place at all. On a thin haired adult the anchors are visible and unattractive.
The inventor of the hair fastener that is the subject of this patent application is a thin haired adult who has tested and worn without success, all of the devices discussed above. No prior art hair fastening or hair ornament device has solved the Volume Problem or the Holding Problem experienced by thin haired adults.
When worn by thin haired adults, the prior art hair fastening devices either accentuate the wearer's scarcity of hair or are unattractive, uncomfortable, juvenile in appearance, feminine in connotation, or visible when worn.